An undated photo of Jeffrey Epstein released by the Department of Justice. (DOJ)
When New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued two of Jeffrey Epstein’s closest advisers this week, his office called it a first — but one journalist argued Thursday it “erased the woman who got there first.”
On Wednesday, Torrez announced that his office had sued Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn — Epstein’s longtime lawyer and accountant, respectively — to recover damages for Epstein survivors. In the announcement, Torrez called the move the “first law enforcement action against the two men,” a claim repeated in countless news outlets ranging from Reuters to The Daily Beast.
As flagged by veteran journalist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, however, the lawsuit was not even the first law enforcement action against the two men from the office of an American attorney general.
In early 2021, Denise George, then the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands, named Indyke and Kahn in her office’s lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, alleging the two had directly “fueled the Epstein Enterprise’s sex trafficking, including payments to women who were forced to have sex with Epstein.”
The lawsuit resulted in a settlement worth more than $105 million, though without Indyke and Kahn admitting any wrongdoing. Just weeks later, however, George would be abruptly removed from office by U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. after she sued JPMorgan Chase over its links to Epstein. George later told the FBI she felt threatened after pursuing legal action against Epstein’s estate, Los Angeles Magazine reported.
The office is now held by Gordon C. Rhea, whom Bryan appointed as attorney general in April 2024 — Rhea being a historian and lawyer who once served as Kahn’s attorney.
“Rhea’s clients had included Richard Kahn. During George’s case, Rhea spoke for Kahn in the press, calling her allegations against the co-executors baseless and inflammatory. In 2022, he told reporters the two sides were very close to a settlement,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote in a report published on her Substack Thursday.
“The territory whose black woman attorney general first and successfully sued Indyke and Kahn is now represented instead by a white man who is Kahn’s former lawyer.”
As to why Torrez’s office would omit George’s successful civil action against Indyke and Kahn, Valdes-Rodriguez had no definitive answer. She suspected it could have “ordinary explanations,” such as that the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office could “mean the first action by a U.S. state, as opposed to a territory.” Or, Valdes-Rodriguez theorized, the omission could have been a tool to juice up Torrez’s reelection bid.
Regardless, Valdes-Rodriguez noted that “within a day,” Torrez’s claim that his office’s action against Indyke and Kahn was a “first” had “traveled around the world, largely unchecked,” and in effect, “erased” George’s actions against the two men just years prior.
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